Clinton knocks GOP drug plan

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) - President Clinton stepped up his attacks Wednesday on a Republican-backed Medicare drug benefit that was moving toward a vote in the House.

The Republican “plan is designed to benefit the companies who make the prescription drugs, not the older Americans who need to take them,” Clinton said at a White House news conference. “It puts special interests above the public interest.”

He vowed once again to veto the Republicans’ plan if it reaches his desk.

Republicans were determined to push their plan ahead, ignoring Democrats who walked off the House floor Wednesday in protest of a close procedural vote that killed their chances of offering their plan for a vote.

"It's a sham, it's a hoax, it's a political fig-leaf," said House Democratic Leader Richard Gephardt, D-Mo.

The two parties are locked in a battle over adding a drug benefit to the federal health program that covers 39 million seniors. Seniors who want insurance coverage of their drug expenses now must buy private insurance, which is often unavailable at any price.

The Republican bill envisions a blend of private insurance companies and federal subsidies to spread prescription drug coverage nationwide to any Medicare-eligible senior citizen who wants it. The bill, estimated to cost about $40 billion over five years, includes subsidies for low-income seniors as well as those with high drug expenses.

“It's a private insurance plan that many seniors and people with disabilities simply won't be able to afford,” Clinton said.

The Democratic proposal, with a price tag nearly double the GOP plan, calls for a program in which the government establishes a uniform drug benefit to be made available nationwide. It, too, contains subsidies for the low income, and more generous benefits for seniors with high drug costs than Republicans provide.

Democrats said politics and Republicans' fear of a backlash from senior citizens was driving the GOP to propose a sham bill that would principally benefit the pharmaceutical industry.

"Not only is it empty promises, it is empty pill jars," Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., jabbed, holding an empty vial aloft to dramatize his point.

Clinton urged Congress to use its remaining time wisely before the demands of the fall campaign leave the Capitol empty.

“We can still do a lot of this if we work together in the days ahead,” Clinton said. “That's what the American people want us to do, even in an election year.”

The president urged a quick vote on the China trade bill. He said Congress should increase the minimum wage, pass a patients’ bill of rights and approve his education program to put more teachers in schools and to fix crumbling school buildings.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., said Wednesday that Democrats were playing “political games” and using scare tactics. Hastert called on Clinton to work with the Republicans on IRA reform and community renewal.

Rex
Nutting

Rex Nutting is a columnist and MarketWatch's international commentary editor, based in Washington. Follow him on Twitter @RexNutting.

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